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A surprising number of students feel unsure about how to write an informative essay. On the one hand, everything seems pretty easy: the name of this college task speaks for itself. An informative paper is a piece of writing where you present objective facts about a specific topic, expanding your readers’ knowledge and basically informing them about it. But on the other hand, knowing what it is along with its purpose doesn’t equal being able to write it.
Informative writing is extremely useful for students since with its help, they get a chance to learn how to be objective and pass the information they possess to other individuals. It’s also an easy way for getting a high grade, but first, you need to know what such papers are built on, how they should be approached, as well as what strategies could make your writing amazing.
What Does Informative Essay Structure Include?
Essays of all types have a similar structure. They are roughly divided into such three parts as intro, body, and conclusion, but the peculiarities of their elements differ. When it comes to informative paper, there is a set of components young writers should know about. Take a look at them below and carefully reproduce them when you begin writing an essay.
- Introduction. This is the first paragraph that should take about 10% of all content. Instead of describing everything, in theory, we decided to provide direct examples that will help you get a clear image of what you should do as a writer. Imagine that our topic is “Pigeons as Species: Truth and Stereotypes That Distort It.” How to start an informative essay like this? Here is one of the possible models.
- Hook. In this part, our task lies in capturing the attention of the audience. This could be done through funny quotes, surprising statistics, jokes, or even relevant facts. For topic about pigeons, we could go with, “Numerous people consider pigeons dirty and dangerous for health, but they have no idea how wrong they are.” This example reveals that beliefs of many people are flawed, which instinctively attracts attention. Do the same in your paper.
- This is the next part of informative essay introduction. Inform audience about some general facts stemming from your topic, disclosing relevant terms & concepts if there are any. Here’s our take. “Pigeons are often referred to as ‘flying rats’. This term implies people’s belief that these birds carry as many diseases as rats, which makes them infectious.”
- Introducing perspective. Here you should introduce the central view on the topic. Disclose what your ideas are going to be based on. For instance: “However, medical statistics reveal a different picture. There are next to no documented cases of pigeons infecting humans.”
- Thesis. This is the last sentence of introduction, and it has extreme importance. Reveal the essence of your work here, so that readers could understand what it’s about before reading further. Note that it should be a direct claim. “Pigeons are not as dangerous and dirty as they are presented, and in reality, they are a natural part of city’s ecosystem.”
- Body. Body is one of the most important parts of an informative essay. Every claim made in thesis should be explored and supported here.
- Start each paragraph with an opening sentence. Here is one example: “Despite common misconceptions, pigeons do not carry diseases.”
- Proceed with research explorations within a paragraph. Put evidence and other relevant facts there.
- Close paragraph with a concluding remark. “Thus, pigeons are not dangerous to humans.”
- Conclusion. Finalize an essay by going through all the mentioned points again.
- Restate thesis. Don’t copy it, simply express it in other words. In our case, this could be like this: “Pigeons do not pose the same degree of danger as many believe, and their presence within the cities is a natural phenomenon.”
- Outline major points from paragraphs. Again, avoid copying anything directly. Remind your audience about everything they have learned as they were reading this informative essay.
- Make conclusive remarks. Wrap everything up by giving your audience a sense of closure. In an informative work, this could sound in the following way: “Therefore, there is no need to fear pigeons. Feeding them could be a good way of establishing friendship, meaning that people and these birds could coexist peacefully.”
Steps For Writing an Informative Essay
Now that you know how structure of your work should look like, it is time to go through different useful steps. We prepared 6 of them — they have the biggest meaning when it comes to writing. Use them as your guide. This way, step by step, you’ll follow this essay journey up to its successful completion.
- Choose an Interesting Topic. This stage is very complex. Boring topics will bore you along with your readers, so this isn’t something you should ever do. Keep searching until you find a truly inspiring theme. Are online arguments present? Are there things you wish people would know more about? Use this chance to exploring it and expanding others’ knowledge. Note that your topic shouldn’t be overly broad: for example, if you’re planning on writing about healthcare issues, it’s a bad idea. It would take you ages and thousands of pages to inform people about this extremely wide category. But how about cancer or problems with COVID? This decision narrows the list down, letting you find a specific focus.
- Look at the Samples. Among other tips, this one is particularly relevant as it allows seeing how good papers should be written. Not all students understand what an informative essay thesis is, which info should be put into paragraphs, and how to wrap things up. Checking out samples is a great strategy for gaining a sense of certainty: when you see the works that brought success to other students, you start understanding how your essay should be presented.
- Create an Outline. The third step concerns outlining your ideas. Look at it like at the skeleton of an essay: it holds the foundation on which everything is built. Informative essay outline should be as detailed as you want, but there is some minimal basis. Dedicate at least one sentence per each part. Body should be broken into paragraphs, with each of them being titled in an appropriate way. You could write opening & closing sentences in advance or just outline the main idea: it’s up to you. Once you start writing, keep checking back with your composed outline. If you feel like you are getting stuck, double-check it: it’ll return a direction sense to you.
- Write Thesis. Thesis is vital in every informational essay. Since it is the most essential paper claim, you should compose it in advance. Put all big points you’ll be discussing into it; in case you aren’t sure what thesis is and what structure it must have, look for online examples. Read through as many of them as needed until you get it right.
- Collect Sources. Every paper should be supported by relevant sources. In case with information essay, this is even more important because everything is founded on extensive research there. You cannot count on your words being believed when you have nothing to support them with. After you’ve settled on a topic, look for related sources. These could be credible articles with official DOI or books released by academic or thematic publishing houses. They should be created within the last 5 years or so, and you need to use them for every claim that isn’t general knowledge. Get ideas from them — this could help expand your essay if you start feeling out of ideas.
- Polish the Paper. After you complete an essay, wait for several hours. Let your eyes and your mind rest. Then re-read it, preferably several times. Pay attention to content issues: perhaps some paragraphs are too unfocused? Are some of them too brief, without exploring any of your points properly? Change this. Never be worried about losing time on editing — it is better to perfect everything by yourself rather than having your professor point these issues out. Grammar & proofreading mistakes should be caught as well, so try removing them. That’s why re-reading an essay several times is always a good idea.
Looking for Writing Topics in the Right Places
Since informative essay format requires choosing truly great topics, many students try hard to think about something. But no matter how thoroughly they brainstorm, they just can’t come up with any viable option. If you’re having the same crisis, we have a solution. Why don’t you check our website? We’ve gathered the best writers and they devised numerous essay topics for all education levels. Before publishing them, we checked them in terms of originality and college appropriateness by consulting with fellow professors. So, if you’re in search of inspiring themes, find them in an informative list here. It’ll help push in the right direction.
Use Sample as Essay Fuel
Like we mentioned in one of the categories above, looking at informative essay examples is always useful. They give you an opportunity to understand what a good paper should comprise and which parts as well as smaller elements it should have. But as it frequently happens, there is a problem: where to find them? Not all platforms are trustworthy, so how can a student know where they can read a sample safely? Like with topics, this is something we took care of. Check our extensive collections with examples. You’ll find quite a few informative essays there, and since reading them is totally free, you’ll get many benefits.
Have a Great Time Writing
Informative essays are diverse in nature and require a set of rules to be followed. But at the same time, they can be interesting and engaging — everything depends on the topic you choose and the creativity you master. Enjoy your writing; try seeing it as a chance for sharing something exciting with people and talking about things you’ve never discussed before. What subjects seem interesting to you? Focus on them and you’ll see how much less frightening academic tasks become.
If you need assistance, you can always find it with us. Use chat option on our site and tell our operators that you require an informative speech essay written. Indicate how many sources and how many words are needed, etc., and we’ll pass this info to our best writers. Whatever deadline you need, we’ll be able to handle it. We have a money-back option that protects your interests, so just drop us a word and we’ll take care of everything swiftly as well as effectively.